🔗 Share this article

I possess a few opinions regarding the comments made by ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler after Novak Djokovic's win over Taylor Fritz during the US Open quarter-finals. Look – the athlete represents the United States, Fowler is American – and athletic competitions frequently encourage patriotic sentiment. A little bit of disappointment would have been understandable. Instead, he invoked the continued absence of American men at the majors: none of them had lifted a title since the last American champion in 2003, and he had been the final representative in the competition.

Everyone love a narrative, me too. But really. Even if the American defeated the legend for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the following match, who he has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d someway gotten past that, it would have been defending champion the Italian, versus him the American had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the last seven major titles (plus Alcaraz went on to defeat a fatigued Djokovic in the subsequent match). He said in press after the loss that he in fact preferred his path, because it presented the opportunity to defeat the top three players in the sport back-to-back. He is well justified to aspire to the achievement; an competitor is meant to have faith in themselves. But entering that Serbian last eight match who else sensibly had the drought of American champions on the brain?

Coco Gauff’s weaker delivery the only thing between her and sustained success

The American, twenty-eight, is placed fourth in the world entering the upcoming year-end championships and has won his previous six matches over third-ranked the German with increasing ease. It's likely he might take that spot for himself in the coming years. But evidently that at present, that is as high as he can rise: The Italian and Spaniard lie a chasm of performance metrics away. His elite serve and concussive strength on each forehand and backhand are sufficiently adequate to defeat the majority of opponents on the ATP tour. When facing the select few once-in-a-lifetime players, though, Fritz is often helpless. The last several seasons has seen the curious rise of lanky, towering players who can nonetheless cover the court with the surprising quickness and fluidity of much shorter players. Fritz is 6ft 5ins and looks it. His movement is stiff, as if he’s still getting used to his legs. So he seldom win a rally that the opponent was controlling, and playing a soft shot versus him is typically a safe bet. That acts as a pretty harsh restriction on his upside.

The American has made a several significant, unexpected advancements over the years. Early on of the ten-year period, he was hovering around the lower end of the world's best thirty. 24 months after, he was approaching the elite ten. The previous season, he suddenly surged to No 4 – and maintained the position. But the subsequent step, mixing it up with and defeating all-time-greats like the young Spaniard, Sinner, and even a aging Serbian, is the highest of all. What was the commentator have been thinking? That the American, in 2025, was a serious threat to defeat them all back-to-back? That it was appropriate mentioning the ongoing drought of American men winning major titles when he had departed the New York major in the quarter-finals? The thirst is just excessive and the respect for the magnitude of the task insufficient.

Taylor Fritz made a career-best run to the All England Club semi-finals in July.

Fritz’s performance in that exact last eight match should have been sufficient of an sign. Djokovic triumphed in four sets, a victory that only seemed tenuous for brief periods towards the conclusion, when the American had saved a few match points and had a chance to hold for 5-5. The pair appeared well-balanced during the exchanges, with the American creating plenty of chances to break. But Djokovic saved break point after break point, extending the streak to the point of frustration. When he eventually did convert a single of the opportunities at 5-5 in the second set, he immediately played a terrible service game to lose his own serve again; Djokovic had lulled him into a skirmish peripheral to the main contest and compelled him to use far too much energy to prevail. Down match points in the last game, Fritz’s first serve sailed to heaven. He prolonged the match two times on his second serve, but ultimately double-faulted. It wasn’t a choke, in my opinion, only a consequence of having to hit an excessive number of second serves.

The match was fairly compelling evidence that Fritz is not good enough to beat any version of the Serbian, who was defeated by the Spaniard in the following match and never especially appeared like he thought he could win. This is perfectly acceptable – Djokovic is the best player ever, and might not be at the height of his physical powers anymore, but has acquired enough knowledge and strategic intelligence to compensate for quite a bit of the decline. The issue is the individuals who were expecting the American to win, and pressuring him to achieve that, when he was yet to done anything that indicated he could.

The American is an asset to the tour nonetheless. He’s a patient, thoughtful voice in media sessions, more so than almost everyone on the men's tour except for Daniil Medvedev, willing to not only express his emotions or the tactic he believed determined a contest, but explain it. That he should bear the brunt of the blame for America failing to produce a men's grand slam winner since Andy Roddick seems unjust. (Now that the fellow American is rubbing shoulders with him in the rankings, perhaps they can divide that load.)

ATP Finals: Singles Groups

American legend Division

• Carlos Alcaraz (Sp)
• Taylor Fritz (US)
• Alex de Minaur (Aus)
• The Italian stylist

Swedish icon Division

• Jannik Sinner (It)
• Alexander Zverev (Ger)
• The rising American
• Félix Auger-Aliassime (Can)

“I’d probably think about it indefinitely if I don’t accomplish it,” Fritz told an interviewer in the summer of winning a major. I hope he realizes that he’s not unsuccessful if he does not fulfill that goal, that overcoming Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominant, formidable empire is in fact extremely improbable for everybody else. {